Best way to play the VIX long term

What is the best way to play the VIX long term? I don't know when it's going to spike, it could be a long time from now, but I'd like to be there when it happens. The VXX is fairly useless over the long term and I don't think options are the way to play it. Would VIX futures make sense or is there potentially another vehicle that works?

I suppose the VIX is just like Crude and Nat Gas where you simply have to be able to time the trade and not just have a long term bullish stance because the backwardation and contango completely mess with it